Tea party familiar with being wrongly blamed after horrific tragedies

It’s now a familiar knee-jerk reaction: The tea party movement is blamed in the immediate aftermath of a horrific tragedy.

The end result is also familiar: Those suggesting the tea party is responsible are proven wrong.

Brian Ross of ABC News became the latest person to end up with egg on his face after news of the Batman shooting massacre in Colorado broke Friday. On ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday morning, Ross rushed to report that someone with the same name as 24-year-old suspect James Holmes was listed as a member of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots.

“There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo., page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the tea party last year,” Ross told host George Stephanopoulos. “Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo.”

Jay Taylor is Senior Vice President of Political Strategy at Liberty Alliance and a graduate of West Virginia University with an MBA and Computer Engineering degrees. Jay oversees the popular websites Conservative Byte and Patriot Update.